Nov 18 2008
The Obama Effect on Fundraising Activity
In the past I’ve been willing to help various campaigns that deal with issues that I’m passionate about, but because I’m not financially in a position to donate $25-$100 as they request, I have to ignore their request. Subsequently I feel bad about myself because I’m not actively helping the causes I believe in. However I think the recent US presidential campaign may have changed how fundraisers appeal for financial assistance.
Barack Obama raised millions of dollars in his presidential campaign not by asking corporations for huge donations, but by requesting $5 amounts from everyday people. Those people then had a financial stake in the outcome of the election and many of them would donate $5 multiple times over during the campaigning period. This is the very thing my mum used to tell me, take care of the pennies and the pounds (dollars) will take care of themselves. People wouldn’t have responded to requests for $25 because that’s a lot of groceries - but $5, that’s little more than a magazine, or a cup of coffee at Starbucks. It was a great fundraising strategy that worked big time for the Democratic Party. Not only did they have a candidate who was capable of exciting his member base, they had a financial idea that put it within most democrats’ budgets to help at least once.
Yesterday I received my first email of the Obama Fundraising Effect being put to a wider use. A group that I’m signed up for an email newsletter with that deals with protecting wolves in the Northern Rockies (currently from George Bush who wants to removed their protected status) sent me an email requesting money - not the $25-$100 donation request that I would usually expect from such an organization, but rather a small $5 donation. Of course I’m welcome to pay more, but $5 is all they’re asking. This I can do! I feel happier about myself because I have $5 that I can put into a campaign to help the organization do something I believe in.
As I clicked through from the emailed newsletter I realized that this probably wouldn’t have happened before the US presidential campaign, and the effect that Obama’s team had on fundraising strategies. It will be interesting to see how many other fundraising campaigns start to follow the trend, and what results it has on their donations.
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By tapping into small money donors, Barack Obama made famous a strategy employed by Howard Dean during his 2004 Presidential run, and to a lesser extent, the 2006 House and Senate elections. Organizations like Act Blue, through websites like the Daily Kos and Democratic Underground, have by using this fundraising strategy for a while now, but this is the first time we’ve seen it on such a large and widely discussed scale.
One of the more brilliant tactics for fundraising used by the Obama campaign was the option for a monthly contribution- kind of a reverse direct deposit, where the donation would come out of your checking account on whatever day you chose, in the amount you chose. We called it our “political tithe”. We could still donate intermittently, but we knew that our collective $150 would always be there. Whenever you saw a “matched donation offer” from the Obama campaign, either Mrs. Rhino or myself could have been the matching donor.
It is already evident that this strategy will become a mainstay in fundraising, as will candidates turning to the internet to share their vision. The netroots are responsible for 15-20% of newly elected officials, sure to be a larger number in years to come.